Southern Hemisphere
http://os.cqu.edu.au/pub/iso/puppylinux/ecopup0.7.1.iso
(Many thanks to Central Queensland University for this mirror)

Purpose-
Ecopup will be a puppy based distro for recycling projects and "community computing".

Aims:-

1. To have a large variety of applications that will be required by most non-technical computer users in a low income home environment.

2. To be intuitive and familiar to those with existing windows experience.

3. To be able to be installed extremely simply on donated hardware, in under ten minutes, permanently removing all traces of the previous windows operating system. This is make it economically viable to refurbish older p.c.'s and sell them at a price point affordable to low income families and individuals.

4. To be natively compatible with as much hardware as possible, *without* additional setup time or training (i.e. autodetect).

5. To install on older hardware running other common operating systems at the end of their supported lifetime with that OS, without effecting the access to or configuration of the origional operating system. It will allow users to transfer operation of their computers to Ecopup gradually, without loss of productivity, and extend the lifetime of their current hardware.

at a point just before it becomes obselete, to allow end users to

This Setup is based on the system we use for recycling p.c.'s at our communty centre cybercafe, where we already have this beta installed. We are also using it for repairing virused/dead windoze machines that people bring in, and for setting up on donated hardware.

Technical Description

The structure of it differs from other puppy derivatives, in that it is a pup_2xx.sfs file and a pup_save.2fs file (this has been changed so that the it is called eco_save.2fs so as not to conflict with other puppy versions on the same computer and to facilitate dual booting via grub of those systems). The CD is basically puppy 2.15ce but boots/saves eco_save.2fs instead of pup_save). On the Cd is a zip archive containing a pre built eco_save.2fs file containing all of the additional applications, the open office .sfs and a "/boot" directory containing appropriate menu entries to start the computer.

The method to install currently on a donated computer is to boot from the cd and use gparted to partition the hard disk into a ext2 linux and a small linux swap. Then install grub on the MBR using the puppy Grub loader. After this we simply unzip the contents of the ecopup.zip file (including the /boot directory) from the cd onto the formatted hard disk, and add to it zdrv_215.sfs and pup_215.sfs copied directly. Reboot machine and setup the screen resolution and there is a computer ready for sale. This process currently takes around ten minutes depending mostly on the speed of the cd.

Software Included
----------------------
All applications currently packaged with puppy 2.15ce, along with

Liberation fonts
Links in Thunderbird open in firefox
Pet-be gone not working
betaftp keeps trying to install with petget
Theme Selector, moved under Settings and changes desktop background (possible ?), which will change
window manager/theme as appropriate.
Double Check Song Ripper
Repair "hang" in AMSN when notification window is displayed in bottom right
"Trying to connect eth0 via autodhcp" message overwrites screen during bootup screens (xorgwizard and "not shut down properly message").
Possible to merge OO22_215.sfs,zdrv_215.sfs and pup_215.sfs into eco_save.2fs file (or at least into just one file) to simplify installation (just one file on hard disk).

Scripts Needed
--------------

Auto setup of burner/cd drives (check for "RW" and "DVD" in autodetect names
Script to install at boot if windows or no Ecopup already found (see "Installer" notes)

Installer
---------

Currently the installation procedure for ecopup is unduly complex and needs lengthy training for it to be undertaken. We would like an installation script that would follow the following logic.

Yes its meant to be installed, either standalone with grub and a linux partition, or alongside windows in a frugal install (CD in-Puppy, CD out-Windoze). People at the cafe either want to buy a refurbished computer, or they have a balked windoze installation and want to pup puppy on it while keeping their windoze data (the dual boot option)

Theres no reason it cant be installed on DVD or usb stick from what I understand about these mediums. If people want to try it it will not interfere with any other pup_saves they have (because its called eco_save.2fs). It does not need a partition or anything else, just unzip the ecosave.zip file on the CD to a partition with enough space and boot from the cd.

Thanks for putting it in the puppy news lobster! _________________Puppy Linux's Mission

OK I unzipped two files from the zip archive
e_save.2fs
and 0022_215.sfs

and placed these in /mnt/home

rebooted
there was a bit of a mess at the resolution screen, where the auto dhcp kicked in. I pressed enter chose my xorg resolution and everything seemed set up and working including ethernet connection . . .

Great to see Descent and Tux with a supply of fish typing and all sort of good things.

Very impressed with this. I listened to the radio. Played some games. Connected to the chat. Changed into a varied selection of Tux backgrounds.

This would be very empowering for a low income family being given a free or cheap computer.

An ideal distro for the whole family. Very well done. Great energy, fun and enthusiasm is all present and waiting to be explored . . ._________________Puppy WIKI

I think the eth0 autodhcp script that connects to the internet runs somewhat later in 2.15 as I have seen it place a black message ("getting ip from dhcp server...") appear on the startup messages before. This lacks polish and would degrade the confidence of the user at a critical point when they are first booting, I will figure out how to remove it. Another thing it does is, when I package (i.e. zip up) the ecopup.zip file with eco_save.2fs, its generally running, so I must remember to delete the .XLOADED flag so at the first boot on the new machine, it does not come up with the time out "computer was not shut down properly"). I will add these to the todo List above.

Just for your information, the files that would ideally be copied to the hard disk are...

eco_save.2fs (the main save file)
0022_215.sfs (the openoffice 2.2 addon)

However, if these last two were not present on the hard disk, then the puppy loader would take them from the cd instead, not causing any problems bu increasing boot times slightly. A full hard disk install with GRUB would need these but as you are booting from the CD you got away with it.

It would be good to be able to merge the .sfs files into just one so as to simplify the setup (I dont know why the drivers were ever put into a separate package, I cant see a situation where they wouldnt be needed.). If they could be included in the eco_save.2fs file this would be ideal. I believe that this is possible (by copying or unzipping them to "/" within the eco_save.2fs internal filesystem?). I need some expert advice on this.

It would be good to be able to merge the .sfs files into just one so as to simplify the setup (I dont know why the drivers were ever put into a separate package, I cant see a situation where they wouldnt be needed.).

Rob

Rob from what I understand the drivers are separate for low ram systems. Only being called if required . . .

Thanks for the info - I am in my second day of using your Puplet - so will copy over the suggested files.

Now time for me to do some fishing . . .
As you are a fan of Community Editions any interest in doing a CE for 2.18 or 2.19?_________________Puppy WIKI

On behalf of those living in the midst of the unreliable, intermittent, and ultimately discontinuous copper telephone connection that lies at the core of the Great Narrow-Band Digital Outback, I salute you ... and ask that you provide an MD5 sum for your downloadable ISO which will, doubtless, bring great joy and salubrity to those living in the aforementioned netherworld.

Organising a Community Edition is a very time consuming activity and requires a lot of expertise. I don't know if ecomoney is too busy for that.

Time consuming is fine (I spend a lot of time with puppy), Im just not sure about the expertise part! Im very up for contributing anything I can to the next community edition though in terms of user feedback and testing. I had promised to help with the 2.15ce edition, but I can see that an excellent job has been done anyway

Raman, Im going to find out what an md5 sum is, then I will post one just as soon as I do!_________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Thanks for that tip raffy, The MD5 Sum is 89069dc32e5cfc7deb851e8ba20500f9

Its included in a text file in the same directory.

I always look forward to the community editions of puppy (and have used every one so far), but I think its important to leave Barry and the other developers to make sufficient updates to the the core of puppy (like hardware detection, wireless and the dvd tools which have come out since 2.02ce) before adding the new user interface and useability features._________________Puppy Linux's Mission

Given the potential broad appeal that EcoPup offers, and given that the download size ranges in the neighborhood of 700 MB, using a torrent file-sharing download would be more reliable -- certainly for the dialup user -- than using either an http download or a ftp download. Perhaps a torrent for EcoPup could be created?

Using the MD5 sum will supply confirmation of whether or not the finished http/ftp download was successful, but only after the 700 MB download is complete. But a 700 MB download on telephone dialup takes several days to accomplish, which is quite an investment in time and telephone, and while I personally have done this countless times, a torrent file-sharing download provides an ongoing continuous hash check -- like the MD5 sum which is done only at the end of the http/ftp download -- which gives much better certainty that the final 700 MB will be a good 700 MB, and that the time spent will not have been wasted.

A torrent is also quite cheap, given the wide distribution of costs associated with bandwidth.

But beyond that, the dialer supplied with Puppy does not automatically redial upon loss of telephone dialup connection, so maybe a dialer for Puppy could be supplied that offers automatic redial. This would be a huge advantage for the heavy-usage dialup puppy puppet.

Thank you again for posting EcoPup.

RamanLast edited by Raman on Tue 03 Jul 2007, 14:29; edited 1 time in total

Thanks Raman, certainly this would be the best way to go on, it is a huge download (it took me a day to upload it!). Im going to have to ask advice on how to get this going?_________________Puppy Linux's Mission

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